Moto3 Argentina: Late pass hands Garcia victory in Termas thriller
Pole-sitter Sergio Garcia won the third round of the Moto3 championship, the Argentina Grand Prix after a well timed, tough final pass on Dennis Foggia saw him ahead at the finish line.
The Solunion GasGas Aspar rider had got a great start as the lights went out and originally found himself in a battle with team-mate Izan Guevara only for his bike to fail, with the Spaniard sensibly pulling out of the way of the riders behind.
Foggia was moving through the pack, working his was up from eleventh on the grid where he stayed for the early laps before going on to push his Leopard Honda into the lead group.
The Italian revealed his cards early moving to the lead at the start of the final lap. His Spanish rival was undeterred, dealing with attention from Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max Racing’s Ayumu Sasaki before launching his final assault at the penultimate corner.
The move was tough and sublime, with his GasGas underneath the number seven there was contact all the way as they turned through turn thirteen together, with Garcia pulling away to win at the line by 0.146s for his first win since the Austrian round of 2021.
The win sees Garcia move into the championship lead, four points ahead of Foggia.
Sasaki had a long lap penalty to serve in the race for his part in Andrea Migno’s exit in Indonesia. That dropped him from his front of the grid start to as low as 18th. The Japanese rider staged his comeback to be in the mix at the line on his way to third, a first podium finish for the Japanese rider this season. His job was made a little easier when Migno hit the knee of Jaume Masia - the only previous winner in the field, taking them both out of the race and left to argue over who was at fault with eight laps remaining.
Tatsuki Suzuki looked to have completed a strong showing for Leopard having crossed the line in fourth, but was awarded a demotion of one place for exceeding track limits on the last lap, dropping him to fifth.
That elevated Riccardo Rossi to fourth for SIC58 Squadra Corse.
The rookies all impressed at Termas with Diogo Moreira leading the way in sixth for MT-Helmets MSI as the top KTM finisher.
Red Bull KTM Ajo's Daniel Holgado was not far behind in seventh for with Carlos Tatay picking up places to claim eighth for CFMoto Racing PruestelGP.
Kaito Toba fought his way up to ninth for CIP Green Power, with his team-mate Joel Kelso picking up his best finish to date in tenth.
Elia Bartolini secured eleventh for QJ Motor Avintia, just ahead of Ryusei Yamanaka on the second MT Helmets entry.
The remaining points on offer went to the two riders who served a long lap penalty for taking a shortcut at turn nine - Red Bull KTM Tech3 riders Adrian Fernandez and Dennis Oncu in 13th and 14th respectively with rookie Ivan Ortola (Angeluss MTA Team) 15th.
Taiyo Furusato finished his first grand prix 17th after returning from injury for Honda Team Asia.
Joshua Whatley was the top British rider in 23rd for VisionTrack racing after his team-mate Scott Ogden retired after closing in on the points places. John McPhee Missed the Argentina round as he continues his recovery from injury.
Xavier Artigas and Ana Carrasco also failed to finish the race.
